Padma Vibhushan was conferred on the BJP Murli Manohar Joshi, Congress minister Sharad Pawar and the late Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma, ace cricketer Virat Kohli and Bollywood singer Anuradha Paudwal and 39 other domitable personalities.
The country’s second highest civilian award, Padma Vibhushan was awarded to a handful of notable personalities in their career fields.
The award was conferred by President Pranab Mukherjee at a special function held at Rashtrapati Bhavan here.
Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli, former Lok Sabha Secretary General T K Vishwanathan, well-known endocrinologist M M Godbole, French historian Michel Danino, former professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Anant Agarwal, and vice-president of Kanyakumari’s Vivekananda Rock Memorial Nivedita Raghunath Bhide were conferred Padma Shri.
Others who received the Padma Shri award include writer Narendra Kohli, para-athlete Deepa Malik, theatre artist Wareppa Naba, Kathakali exponent Chemancheri Kunhairaman Nair, Malayalam poet Akkitham Achyuthan Nambudiri, tribal artist from Kharkhan Mukund Nayak, environmentalist Balbir Singh Seechewal and well-known gynaecologist Bhakti Yadav.
Folk singer Basanti Bisht, entrepreneur Mohan Reddy Venkat Rama Bodanapu, Madhubani artist Baoa Devi, folk artist of Halakki tribe in Karnataka, Sukri Bommu Gouda, ‘Bike ambulance dada’ of Jalpaiguri district in West Bengal Karimul Hak were also conferred Padma Shri award.
The number of Padma awardees this year is 89. Amongst them, Padma Vibhushan was received by seven stalwarts and Padma Bhushan was received by seven others.
Out of the 89 awardees, 19 are women. Moreover, the list includes five persons from the category of foreigners, NRIs and six posthumous awardees.
The government had received 18,000 nominations this time out of which 4,000 were submitted online. The announcement was made on January 26.
At the special evening, a few other dignitaries were also present at the event apart from President Pranab Mukherjee. Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, senior BJP leader L K Advani, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan among other Union ministers and top bureaucrats also graced the event.
Other awardees will be felicitated with their respective awards on April 13.
